What does clavicembalo mean?
A clavicembalo is the Italian name for a harpsichord, one of the most important keyboard instruments of the Renaissance and Baroque eras. Unlike a piano, whose hammers strike the strings, the clavicembalo produces sound by means of small plectra that pluck the strings when a key is pressed, yielding a bright, silvery, highly articulate tone that cannot be varied by touch alone. The instrument was central to the works of composers such as Frescobaldi, Scarlatti, and Bach, serving both as a virtuoso solo instrument and as the continuo backbone of ensembles and orchestras. In English usage, the word appears chiefly in early-music scholarship, instrument catalogues, and concert program notes; general audiences more commonly encounter the English equivalent, harpsichord. Knowing the term enriches any discussion of historical performance practice and the evolution of keyboard instruments toward the modern piano.
nounA clavicembalo is the Italian name for a harpsichord, a keyboard instrument in which strings are plucked by quills or plectra when keys are pressed, producing a bright, resonant tone.
- The Italian term for a harpsichord: a plucked-string keyboard instrument, especially as used in Italian Baroque music.
"The museum's music room houses a beautifully restored 18th-century clavicembalo."
"Bach's concertos were performed on a richly voiced clavicembalo at the festival's opening night."
"The builder spent three years crafting a clavicembalo modeled on instruments by the Florentine maker Bartolomeo Cristofori's contemporaries."
The plural follows the Italian pattern, though the anglicized "clavicembalos" also occurs in informal English writing.
"The collection includes two rare clavicembali from the Venetian school."
The clavicembalo is simply what Italians call a harpsichord — the glittering plucked keyboard that ruled European music before the piano stole the spotlight.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of clavicembalo
The word clavicembalo comes from Italian, formed from Latin clavis ("key") combined with cembalo, an Italian borrowing of Greek kymbalon ("cymbal," a percussion instrument), which came to denote stringed instruments played with quills. The compound literally means "keyed cymbal," reflecting how harpsichords were understood relative to older plucked instruments. It shares the Latin key-root with related terms such as clavier, clavichord, and clavicle.
How clavicembalo is actually used
Clavicembalo is primarily an Italian musical term; in English it appears mostly in early-music contexts, scholarly writing, or program notes about Baroque performance practice. In everyday English, "harpsichord" is the standard word.
Easily confused with clavicembalo
A clavichord produces sound by striking strings with tangents, giving a soft, intimate tone, whereas a clavicembalo (harpsichord) plucks its strings and is much louder and brighter.